An organization such as a corporation (office and factory), a hospital and a store makes a rule by which a party concerned can grasp a situation (presence) of an object, such as person and substance, related to the party concerned to make work efficiency improved.
It is assumed that the object is a person, for example, an employee of the above mentioned organization. Then, it is also assumed that the party concerned is a superior of the employee or another employee working for the same department for which the employee works. In this case, the employee gives the party concerned a message on destination of the employee or leaves a memo on a message board, when the employee is going out of one room to other destination room.
However, giving a message or leaving a memo causes the following problems.
As the first problem, presence of the object is not updated automatically. For example, it is assumed that the object is a person (for example, employee). In this case, the employee has to update his presence on his own initiative, when he is going out of one room to other destination room. In case that the object is a substance, the party concerned, who is related to the substance, has to update presence of the object on own initiative.
As the second problem, situation may be different in some cases, while the object exists at the same location. For example, it is assumed that the object is a person (for example, employee), and a room where the employee stays is divided into a plurality of departments whose businesses are different each other. In this case, the employee enters into a different situation (works different business) while the employee is in the same location (room), when the employee moves from one department to other department to work business of the other department. In case that the object is a substance, the object enters into a different situation while the object is in the same location (room), when the object is moved from a department, in which a certain process for the object is carried out, to a department where next process is carried out. Even if the object stays in the same location (room), the party concerned cannot grasp a situation, in which the object moves around in the room, such as for telephoning and arguing orally.
It is desired to represent precisely the situation (presence) which cannot be represented by the conventional use of message and memo.
Here, technology in relation to management of the object will be described in the following.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-325129 discloses a presence information providing system.
The presence information providing system includes a wireless terminal apparatus, a plurality of wireless base stations and a presence server. A plurality of wireless base stations are arranged in predetermined locations and carries out wireless communication with the wireless terminal apparatus. The presence server stores and manages presence information, and provides a terminal apparatus, which issues a request for presence information, with the presence information related to a requested terminal apparatus in response to the request for presence information.
The wireless terminal apparatus includes a receiving power measuring means and a measurement result reporting means. The receiving power measuring means measures receiving power of wireless communication with the wireless base station at a present location. The measurement result reporting means reports a measurement result, which is measured by the receiving power measuring means, to the presence server.
The presence server includes a storage means, a location estimating means and a location name reporting means. The storage means stores and manages a location and a location name in association with the measurement result on the receiving power. When the location estimating means receives the measurement result at the present location from the measurement result reporting means, the location estimating means estimates a location corresponding to the measurement result, based on a stored content in the storage means. The location name reporting means reads the location name corresponding to the location, which the location estimating means estimates, from the storage means and reports the location name to the wireless terminal apparatus.
The wireless terminal apparatus includes a display means and an update reporting means. When the display means receives the location name from the location name reporting means, the display means displays the location name as the present location name. When the update reporting means detects update on the present location name which the display means displays, the update reporting means reports the update on the location name to the presence server.
The presence server includes a storage control means. When the storage control means receives the update on the location name related to the present location name, the storage control means controls the storage means to change the present location name, which the storage means stores, to new present location name based on the update.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-57706 discloses a presence information providing system.
The presence information providing system includes a schedule managing server, a presence managing server and a user terminal. The schedule managing server is connected to communication network and manages user's schedule information. The presence managing server is connected to the communication network and manages user's presence information at least. The user terminal is connected to the communication network and sends message information, based on presence information on a destination user.
The schedule managing server includes a schedule managing unit. The schedule managing unit manages schedule information of user who possesses the user terminal.
The presence managing server includes a profile information managing unit, a profile information acquiring unit, a schedule information acquiring unit, a next possible communication extracting unit and a presence updating unit. The profile information managing unit manages profile information which includes information necessary for acquiring the user's schedule information at least. In case that the profile information acquiring unit checks the presence information and consequently, finds that the presence information indicates the user terminal to be unable to communicate, the profile information acquiring unit acquires the profile information on the user who possesses the user terminal. The schedule information acquiring unit acquires the schedule information stored in the schedule managing server via the communication network, based on the profile information. The next possible communication extracting unit extracts the next possible communication time, which indicates time when the user terminal impossible to communicate at present time will be possible to communicate, based on the schedule information which the schedule information acquiring unit acquires. The presence updating unit updates the presence information of the user terminal, based on the next possible communication time.
The user terminal includes a presence information requesting unit and a display unit. The presence information requesting unit requests the presence information, which includes the next possible communication time, to the presence control server. The display unit displays the presence information which includes the next possible communication time.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-214934 discloses a presence information processing terminal.
The presence information processing terminal can communicate with other communication terminal via a network. The presence information processing terminal includes an imaging means and a sending means. The imaging means images neighborhood of the presence information processing terminal. The sending means sends a picture, which the imaging means images, to other communication terminal, as the presence information which indicates whether user of the presence information processing terminal exists around the presence information processing terminal.